Rahul hits highest-ever score
CAPTAIN KL Rahul on Thursday (24) recorded the highest-ever score by an Indian batsman in IPL history as he took Kings XI Punjab to a comfortable victory over Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Rahul, in his second outing as skipper, was dropped twice by Kohli before going on to smash an unbeaten 132 off just 69 deliveriesthe first century of the 2020 season- to help Punjab post a massive 206 for three and a 97-run win.
India captain Kohli had a night to forget when he dropped Rahul on 83 and again on 89 one over later in the match in Dubai.
Rahul also recorded the highest score ever by a captain in the IPL, and broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record to become the fastest Indian to 2,000 IPL runs, achieving the feat in 60 innings compared to the legendary player’s 63 innings.
‘It was good to be in the middle and see the team through whatever we’d planned before the game,’ Rahul said.
‘I think it’s as complete a team performance as it can get, really happy.’
Kohli acknowledged that he did not have the ‘best day of the office’.
‘Maybe if we restricted them to under 180, we wouldn’t have been under pressure… from ball one to chase close to 210,’ he said.
‘So we know exactly where we went wrong and it’s time to put my hand up and say a couple of important chances went down.’
ROYAL Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli took the blame for his team’s 97-run thrashing by Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League here.
Without hesitation, Kohli took the blame for dropping Kings XI Punjab skipper KL Rahul twice, which contributed significantly to their defeat on Thursday.
Kohli felt had he not dropped two catches off the blade of Rahul, who remained unbeaten on 132, KXIP would not have been able to go past the 200-run mark.
‘I have to stand in front and take the brunt of it, not the best day in the office, couple of important chances of KL when he was set and that cost us 35-40 runs at a later stage.
‘Maybe if we restricted them to 180 we wouldn’t have been under pressure from ball one of the chase,’ said Kohli at the post-match presentation.
KXIP posted 206 for three and RCB were bundled out for 109 in 17 overs.
‘We know exactly where we went wrong and I have to put my hand up and say a couple of important chances went down. There are days when these kind of things happen on the cricket field, they happen and we have to accept them.
‘We have had a good game (against Sunrisers Hyderabad), we have had a bad game and now it is time to move on and learn from the mistakes we made,’ said Kohli.
On sending the young Josh Philippe ahead of himself at number 3, Kohli said: ‘He has batted at the top of the order for Western Australia and done well in the BBL as well, early days in the tournament so we thought we will maximise his ability and see how we go from there on. We thought we will give ourselves a bit of depth in the middle overs.’